Darren had been working in the IT sector since he left university, at the age of 51 he was starting a new job with his 10th employer. In the first couple of weeks he had an interview with the financial advisor handling his new employers pension scheme. That’s when reality struck home.

Not only had Darren’s income been going down over the last 10 or so years but he found that he only had 14 years of pension contributions from his previous employers, only 2 had any form of pension scheme. Pensions were not a subject that Darren had been concerned about after all, that’s a long way off, isn’t it?

That day the IFA told Darren his retirement prospects looked ‘bleak’. It was that and the lack of spending money that led Darren to start looking at part-time businesses.

Over the next few years Darren tried various businesses, most required products to be bought and sold, some even required a monthly order whether it was needed or not. He tried catalogue based businesses which generated sales but the ultimate hourly rate meant he would have earned more stacking shelves, serving in a pub or something similar. Health foods and supplements worked for a time but the latest fad gets overtaken by the next latest fad in no time at all and getting repeat sales was nearly impossible.

Then one day Darren received an email about a business that looked very different. No stock to buy or sell, no money to collect, just showing people products and services they already used but saving them money each month. No more trying to pursued them to part with their hard earned money for products they didn’t want or even need. Now Darren wanted to reduce his outgoings and realised that many other people would want to do the same. He also realised that because of the nature of the business, repeat sales would come in automatically each and every month without any or little input from him.

By his 60th birthday Darren had already built a reasonable passive income and as his birthday present to himself, decided to resign from his job and just pursue his part-time business. Now Darren does stress that he was not receiving mega money but he was comfortable with both the current level of income and the prospects for the future. But the main reason he made his decision was it meant he didn’t have to work all hours, sometimes very late into the night or over weekends. Finally he could take some time for himself and his family.

Since going part-time only, Darren has been able to volunteer some of his time to helping others learn about IT. Once a week he helps out at his granddaughters school computer club and he also does a little bit with older people through a UK age related charity. As Darren says, “it’s not just about the passive income, knowing that will be coming in no matter what is security but it’s about what that allows you to do, the choices it opens up. For me that’s being able to give something back but also not having to worry about pensions”.